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Ladder-leaders flex muscle to continue Hawthorn's slide

Ladder-leaders flex muscle to continue Hawthorn's slide

The Advertiser30-05-2025

Rampaging Collingwood have blown Hawthorn away by 51 points at the MCG, inflicting a third-straight defeat upon the Hawks.
Under more pressure than any other team during the week after a 33-point loss to Brisbane, Hawthorn just couldn't go with the red-hot Magpies in front of 83,706 fans.
Collingwood slammed through six straight goals from late in the second quarter to midway through the third term, setting up the 16.11 (107) to 8.8 (56) win.
In an added blow for the Hawks, ruckman Lloyd Meek is facing a suspension after making late contact with Collingwood's Patrick Lipinski in the third quarter.
Meek crashed into Lipinski from behind and the winger was forced from the field, where he later failed a concussion test.
Collingwood players immediately flew the flag for Lipinski, sparking a mini melee, before kicking an easy goal from the goalsquare after a 50m penalty paid.
The match review officer is unlikely to look kindly on an incident in which a player arrived late, resulting in the injured rival entering concussion protocols.
Refreshed Magpies veteran Steele Sidebottom (27 possessions and two goals) was superb, banging through long goals and going on one run down the wing which included four bounces.
Superstar Nick Daicos (32 disposals, one goal) was typically influential, while veteran forward Jamie Elliott continued his outstanding, career-best season.
Elliott's five-goal haul took him to equal top of the Coleman Medal, level with Geelong star Jeremy Cameron on 33.
The 32-year-old is set to smash his highest goal tally in a season of 39 back in 2023.
Not even a lively outing from Jack Ginnivan against his former team could spark Hawthorn into action.
After blitzing the Magpies with two goals and 31 possessions last year, Ginnivan turned it on early with three first-half majors.
But unlike last year when Hawthorn cantered to a 66-point win, Ginnivan refrained from over-the-top goal celebrations.
The Magpies premiership player was still routinely booed by the parochial Collingwood crowd.
Hawks coach Sam Mitchell highlighted Ginnivan's performance as the only positive from the match.
"We've got some work to do where we can get our players in positions to tackle more often, because you're not going to beat a side like that if you can only lay 38 (tackles)," Mitchell said.
Dubbed the 'Hollywood Hawks' following their brilliant run to last year's finals, Hawthorn suddenly find themselves in a rut at 7-5.
After missing the finals last year following their 2023 premiership triumph, Collingwood have surged to 10-2, sitting atop the AFL ladder.
"It'd be close to it," McRae said when asked if it was Collingwood's best game of the season.
"The game up in Brisbane was really strong ... I just really loved our maturity tonight, and particularly the last quarter."
Shown up by the last two premiers in consecutive weeks, Hawthorn have more challenges to come in the Western Bulldogs and Adelaide.
Rampaging Collingwood have blown Hawthorn away by 51 points at the MCG, inflicting a third-straight defeat upon the Hawks.
Under more pressure than any other team during the week after a 33-point loss to Brisbane, Hawthorn just couldn't go with the red-hot Magpies in front of 83,706 fans.
Collingwood slammed through six straight goals from late in the second quarter to midway through the third term, setting up the 16.11 (107) to 8.8 (56) win.
In an added blow for the Hawks, ruckman Lloyd Meek is facing a suspension after making late contact with Collingwood's Patrick Lipinski in the third quarter.
Meek crashed into Lipinski from behind and the winger was forced from the field, where he later failed a concussion test.
Collingwood players immediately flew the flag for Lipinski, sparking a mini melee, before kicking an easy goal from the goalsquare after a 50m penalty paid.
The match review officer is unlikely to look kindly on an incident in which a player arrived late, resulting in the injured rival entering concussion protocols.
Refreshed Magpies veteran Steele Sidebottom (27 possessions and two goals) was superb, banging through long goals and going on one run down the wing which included four bounces.
Superstar Nick Daicos (32 disposals, one goal) was typically influential, while veteran forward Jamie Elliott continued his outstanding, career-best season.
Elliott's five-goal haul took him to equal top of the Coleman Medal, level with Geelong star Jeremy Cameron on 33.
The 32-year-old is set to smash his highest goal tally in a season of 39 back in 2023.
Not even a lively outing from Jack Ginnivan against his former team could spark Hawthorn into action.
After blitzing the Magpies with two goals and 31 possessions last year, Ginnivan turned it on early with three first-half majors.
But unlike last year when Hawthorn cantered to a 66-point win, Ginnivan refrained from over-the-top goal celebrations.
The Magpies premiership player was still routinely booed by the parochial Collingwood crowd.
Hawks coach Sam Mitchell highlighted Ginnivan's performance as the only positive from the match.
"We've got some work to do where we can get our players in positions to tackle more often, because you're not going to beat a side like that if you can only lay 38 (tackles)," Mitchell said.
Dubbed the 'Hollywood Hawks' following their brilliant run to last year's finals, Hawthorn suddenly find themselves in a rut at 7-5.
After missing the finals last year following their 2023 premiership triumph, Collingwood have surged to 10-2, sitting atop the AFL ladder.
"It'd be close to it," McRae said when asked if it was Collingwood's best game of the season.
"The game up in Brisbane was really strong ... I just really loved our maturity tonight, and particularly the last quarter."
Shown up by the last two premiers in consecutive weeks, Hawthorn have more challenges to come in the Western Bulldogs and Adelaide.
Rampaging Collingwood have blown Hawthorn away by 51 points at the MCG, inflicting a third-straight defeat upon the Hawks.
Under more pressure than any other team during the week after a 33-point loss to Brisbane, Hawthorn just couldn't go with the red-hot Magpies in front of 83,706 fans.
Collingwood slammed through six straight goals from late in the second quarter to midway through the third term, setting up the 16.11 (107) to 8.8 (56) win.
In an added blow for the Hawks, ruckman Lloyd Meek is facing a suspension after making late contact with Collingwood's Patrick Lipinski in the third quarter.
Meek crashed into Lipinski from behind and the winger was forced from the field, where he later failed a concussion test.
Collingwood players immediately flew the flag for Lipinski, sparking a mini melee, before kicking an easy goal from the goalsquare after a 50m penalty paid.
The match review officer is unlikely to look kindly on an incident in which a player arrived late, resulting in the injured rival entering concussion protocols.
Refreshed Magpies veteran Steele Sidebottom (27 possessions and two goals) was superb, banging through long goals and going on one run down the wing which included four bounces.
Superstar Nick Daicos (32 disposals, one goal) was typically influential, while veteran forward Jamie Elliott continued his outstanding, career-best season.
Elliott's five-goal haul took him to equal top of the Coleman Medal, level with Geelong star Jeremy Cameron on 33.
The 32-year-old is set to smash his highest goal tally in a season of 39 back in 2023.
Not even a lively outing from Jack Ginnivan against his former team could spark Hawthorn into action.
After blitzing the Magpies with two goals and 31 possessions last year, Ginnivan turned it on early with three first-half majors.
But unlike last year when Hawthorn cantered to a 66-point win, Ginnivan refrained from over-the-top goal celebrations.
The Magpies premiership player was still routinely booed by the parochial Collingwood crowd.
Hawks coach Sam Mitchell highlighted Ginnivan's performance as the only positive from the match.
"We've got some work to do where we can get our players in positions to tackle more often, because you're not going to beat a side like that if you can only lay 38 (tackles)," Mitchell said.
Dubbed the 'Hollywood Hawks' following their brilliant run to last year's finals, Hawthorn suddenly find themselves in a rut at 7-5.
After missing the finals last year following their 2023 premiership triumph, Collingwood have surged to 10-2, sitting atop the AFL ladder.
"It'd be close to it," McRae said when asked if it was Collingwood's best game of the season.
"The game up in Brisbane was really strong ... I just really loved our maturity tonight, and particularly the last quarter."
Shown up by the last two premiers in consecutive weeks, Hawthorn have more challenges to come in the Western Bulldogs and Adelaide.

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Don't miss out on the headlines from Victoria. Followed categories will be added to My News. FightMND chief executive Matt Tilley describes his first meeting with Australian of the Year Neale Daniher as 'intimidating', but the former radio star and comedian handled it in trademark style. 'I told him he was my third favourite Daniher brother growing up, thinking that might break the ice,' he says with a chuckle. 'I said, 'Terry was my fave, then I had Chris on my back because number 7 was easy for mum to sew on there, and then there was Neale'. 'He's got a very cheeky sense of humour and I think everyone can see that, but it was intimidating for me because I felt a great weight of responsibility to be taking on a role that was created by him – and he has since gone on to be Australian of the Year.' Monday's Big Freeze at the MCG, when celebrities plunge into an ice bath to raise money for motor neurone disease research and support for Australians living with the disease, is Tilley's first time at the helm of the event. He expects the MCG to be filled with blue beanies sold as part of the mega fundraiser, ahead of a traditional Collingwood and Melbourne King's Birthday blockbuster, but has also introduced a 'digital beanie' this year that can be shared via social media. He expects the MCG to be filled with blue beanies sold as part of the mega fundraiser, ahead of a traditional Collingwood and Melbourne King's Birthday blockbuster. Picture: Wayne Taylor 'You can personalise it, put your nickname on it, if you don't want to have hat hair here's a great way of leaning in and supporting the cause,' Tilley says. 'The idea is to fill a virtual 'G – getting to 100,000 digital beanies, which is one for every seat.' Tilley found time to chat to Matt Johnston for the Herald Sun's Big V Interview to explain how he went from a comedy writer with a back-up law degree to being a champion of charities. NATURAL STORY TELLER Although Tilley forged a long career as a commercial radio star, when he was first encouraged to go on air he barely knew what FM was. 'I grew up in a house where my dad just had classical music playing all the time, or jazz,' he says. The house was in Mt Eliza, where kangaroos hopped through the bush at the end of the street and Tilley and his three younger siblings roamed with bare feet. He was 'mad for footy and cricket' but tried everything at The Peninsula School and achieved more success in drama despite not being an 'artsy type'. He concedes he 'was a bit of a smart arse at school', but worked hard. 'I was senior prefect, but the first senior prefect who had been suspended. So a bit of a mix,' he says. 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His big break came on Fox FM when he partnered with Tracy Bartram, at a time when male and female presenters were paired to bounce off one another. 'Radio was about being relatable and telling a story, it wasn't so much about boom boom punchlines or acerbic comments on the news,' he says. 'I've got great memories of that time, and working with people who had the same sense of drive, camaraderie. You rely on everyone to do well.' He was later joined by Jo Stanley, and the Matt and Jo Show was the number one FM breakfast team for eight years. Despite the success and the 3:30am starts, Tilley plugged away at his arts/law degree and graduated after 11 years. 'I think it's close to the record,' he laughs. 'I recently found out I was at law school with Josh Frydenberg but I didn't see him, he was probably in and out a bit quicker than me and I didn't go to a lot of lectures. 'I finished (the degree) because I thought radio was a fool's paradise and it would never last – eventually they'd work out I was a fraud.' Matt Tilley CD Gotach Calls. Cover. In the late 1990s he married Susie and they had three children – Grace, Jack and Oscar. Stories about the challenges and joys of parenthood were often shared on air, which helped Tilley connect to listeners. 'For our audience, young families and stuff, I was going through what they were.' PRANKING HIS WAY TO THE TOP As a teenager, Tilley would entertain friends with prank calls. 'I used to get a mate's dad every second week. He was a baker and always a bit tired and vulnerable,' he says. 'I used to ring up and say I found half a mouse in a hot cross bun and stuff like that, or try and buy the bakery off him, ridiculous things like that.' In the mid-2000s his radio team suggested trying it out on air, and so he called a butcher, feigning to be an elderly man. The butcher kept hanging up and Tilley thought the prank was a fizzer, but a producer cut up the huffing and puffing of the man as he kept hanging up, and it worked. That moment spawned the popular segment, Matt Tilley's Gotcha Calls. 'It was a different time, you could do funny accents and different nationalities and it wasn't necessarily from a mean-spirited place, it was more about duping people into thinking it was someone that wasn't me,' he says. Tilley says that he has no problem with sensibilities changing over time but has empathy for people in comedy today. When Tilley hung up the radio mic he took a break, during which he considered establishing a charity fundraiser. 'Not because the times are woke and that's awful, more because the areas you can play in are more clearly defined and that just makes it harder, it's not as broad a canvas. 'You can be really quickly held to account on social media; quite possibly you offended just as many people back in the day but they couldn't be bothered writing a letter. 'Comedians will always exist at the edge of what people are happy to put up with.' The Gotcha Calls segment became four Gold-selling CDs sold on the late Michael Gudinski's record label, raising almost $1m for charity. 'It exposed me to a different world and a lot of amazing people and I connected with some of those people,' he says. 'I started to move in that direction, not through any noble sense of needing to do right, but I thought 'I kind of like this'. 'And I thought I could use whatever skills I might have to appeal to large audiences, to raise money for important things, and be sufficiently different that I can still have fun and shake things up a bit.' FROM MIC DROP TO DOLLAR DROP When Tilley hung up the radio mic he took a break, during which he considered establishing a charity fundraiser. Eventually he was convinced to have a crack, and created the Aussie Dollar Drop in 2018. 'I had this idea that if everyone dropped $1 on one day, there would be $25m,' he says. The fundraiser took flight in Victoria at the 2018 election, and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for homeless services. TV and radio presenter Tracy Bartram with Matt Tilley, Greg Fleet, Amanda Keller and Peter Berner from TV show "The Chat Room" Mar 2003. panel panellists 'It didn't make the $25m, because everybody votes before the election and no one carries cash,' he says. 'But I kind of went, 'oh, if you have an idea that people think is pretty good and it's achieving a pretty good end, they'll get behind you.' Soon after, he took on a new role at Foodbank Victoria, after CEO David McNamara recognised the impact Covid-19 would have on its services. Tilley jokes that Foodbank's success as the largest hunger relief charity in the country is from being 'beneficiaries of fusspots and morons' who reject fruit and vegetables based on shape or colour. As a 'mad veggie grower', Tilley has an affinity with agricultural producers and the challenges they face. 'My dirty secret is I'm a competitive veggie grower,' he says. 'I want to win as many ribbons as I can; I go to the Red Hill show, I'm three times aggregate champion, undefeated.' His secret to success is simple. 'Chicken shit, I go through tonnes of it,' he says. 'There's this chicken farmer down the road from where my veggie patch is and he puts rice husk on the floor for his chickens, scrapes it up with all the crap on the floor and it's magic.' FIGHTING MND During his time at Foodbank, Tilley instigated a 'food fight' initiative at schools. Using fake fruits and recycled material, the fundraiser is effectively a chance for students to raise money for a worthy cause so they could 'piff stuff at teachers'. 'I wanted to build something that a lot of people want to do, that's fun,' he says. 'The epitome of that is the Big Freeze.' When Tilley was sounded out to take the FightMND reins from outgoing CEO, Dr Fiona McIntosh, he seized the opportunity. Picture: Wayne Taylor When Tilley was sounded out to take the FightMND reins from outgoing CEO, Dr Fiona McIntosh, he seized the opportunity, having admired the organisation's community connection from afar. Neale Daniher, who set up the charity with Pat Cunningham and the late Dr Ian Davis in 2014, is still 'incredibly engaged' in operations, despite MND's crippling effects. 'It's very difficult for him to communicate personally, but there wouldn't be many days I don't get an email or a question from him, he's still incredibly engaged and sharp of mind,' Tilley says. The FightMND Army has invested more than $115 million in research and support services since 2014 and Daniher's advocacy saw him named the 2025 Australian of the Year. Tilley says Monday's Big Freeze event 'is a special one' for that reason, and that FightMND is upfront about Daniher's illness, which weakens nerve cells and eventually leads to muscle paralysis. 'We are very honest about it – it's getting harder and harder for him,' Tilley says. 'The slide is so special for him, we really want to make sure each year it is something amazing.' Donate and grab your digital beanie at

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